1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications equipment, and, in particular, to enclosures for housing and protecting telecommunications equipment.
2. Description of the Related Art
A building entrance protector (BEP) is an enclosure used to house and protect telecommunications equipment. For example, a BEP may house the components used to interface between a multi-wire cable providing telephone service to a building and the twisted pairs of copper wire for individual telephones distributed throughout the building. These interface components may include connectors, such as insulation displacement connectors (IDCs), as well as electrical isolation components, such as high-voltage/high-current plug-in protectors. The BEP may have two or more hinged pieces that define one or more different compartments within the BEP for such functions as breaking out wires from the multi-wire cable, splicing two cables together, connecting cable wires to electrical isolation components, connecting the electrical isolation components to IDC connectors, and terminating the twisted pairs at the IDC connectors.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show front and cross-sectional end views, respectively, of the base 100 of a conventional building entrance protector. Mounted on base 100 is an electrical isolation interface 102 for receiving high-voltage/high-current plug-in protectors and an IDC block 104 used to terminate copper wires. The BEP may also have a lid (not shown) pivotally connected to base 100 to prevent access to the interface components mounted on base 100. Base 100 is itself mounted to a surface (e.g., a wall) using a special cable-routing bracket 106 that provides clearance between the back of base 100 and the mounting surface for multi-wire cables or bundles of wires passing through two swivel stubs 108 and 110 that are mounted on the back of base 100. As shown in FIG. 1B, wires passing through swivel stub 108 are wrapped around conductors of electrical isolation interface 102. Electrical isolation interface 102 has other conductors that are wrapped with wires that are also wrapped around conductors of IDC block 104. IDC block 104 in turn has other conductors that are wrapped with wires passing through swivel stub 110.
When base 100 is mounted on a surface such as a wall, each swivel stub is rotated to direct its cable of wires in either the up or down direction along the channel formed between cable-routing bracket 106 and the wall. When two or more bases, like base 100, are mounted on a wall stacked end to end, the cable from a swivel stub in one base may pass through the cable channel of one or more other bases. A cable-routing bracket 106 of a particular size will be able to accommodate a fixed number of cables, where that fixed number depends on the sizes (e.g., diameters) of the cables. As such, for a given bracket design, there is also a corresponding fixed number of bases that can be stacked end to end.
Moreover, when bases are stacked end to end, adding an additional base or replacing an existing base may be difficult, requiring the feeding of cables for the new base through the channels of existing bases which may already have a number of other cables running through them. This can be particularly troublesome when a base in the interior of a stack is to be replaced.
Once a base is installed the sides of cable-routing bracket 106 prevent swivel stubs 108 and 110 from easily rotating a full 180 degrees after they are configured with cables. As such, the orientation of the swivel-stub cables of every stacked BEP must be carefully pre-planned. If a cable gets mis-oriented or if the orientation needs to be changed, it can become very difficult to make the necessary changes to the cable orientation, possibly requiring the removal and reinstallation of all of the BEPs in the stack.